Thomas Dollbaum – Drive All Night
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Dear Life Records
I have two pieces of advice for any young music fans reading this. One is to start buying shirts a size up, maybe even two if it’s a long-sleeve or sweatshirt that you want to feel cozy in. It might seem silly now, but the number of Medium-sized shirts I have purchased, loved, and grown out of in my early 30s is both terrifying and saddening. Aside from the ways in which your metabolism might catch up with you, you never know which pieces of merch are going to shrink unexpectedly after just a couple of washes, so I figure it’s better to be a little baggy than too tight. The other piece of advice I have is to follow record labels.
As holes continue to appear in the streaming model, it’s clear that “discovering” music was never the aim of companies like Spotify. Especially as payola-like systems proliferate, AI artists populate servers, and profit is funneled into defense companies, this year has been a long-overdue reckoning for music streaming services. As artists continue to pull their albums from Spotify and decentralize the spaces where their music exists, it has never felt so important to be conscious of what you’re listening to and supporting.
People ask me all the time how I “find” new music, and actively following a record label is one of the best answers I can give. It’s the same logic as going out to catch the opener or seeing what groups are in a band’s related artists section, just a little more ongoing. All you have to do is think of a song or band that you’ve been enjoying, click through to their album, and scroll to the bottom of the page to see what record label released it. Go find that label online (maybe on your social media of choice, but ideally on Bandcamp or their newsletter) and then go see what other bands they’re working with. Even if you’ve never heard of them, odds are most of the acts on any label exist in a similar stylistic lane as the one you already like, maybe they’re even part of the same scene or localized network of bands. It can be incredibly fun and rewarding to uncover these ornate webs of musical connections and find new obsessions in the process.
It’s impossible to calculate how many artists I’ve discovered through this method, but this past Friday, I added another onto the list: Thomas Dollbaum.
Dollbaum is a plainspoken folk-country musician based out of New Orleans who just released a six-track EP titled Drive All Night through Dear Life Records. Founded in 2019 and operating out of a few hubs across the East Coast, Dear Life Records is an artist-run label that I discovered through the first couple of MJ Lenderman records. Through Dear Life, I discovered bands like Fust and Florry, and now will check out whatever else they release on the off-chance it connects with me as hard.
Drive All Night is a slow and patient release guided forward by Dollbaum’s compassionate, folksy Arthur Russell-like croon. While his debut Wellswood was released a few years back, this new EP is meant to serve as a “brief reintroduction” to his sprawling world. Ostensibly a road trip album, Drive All Night ironically feels suited for any hour of the day, so long as you’re cruising down a highway or back road watching the world pass through your windshield.
The opening title track is a slow-starter featuring a lullaby-like acoustic guitar loop and guest vocals from Kate Teague. The following “Angus Valley” winds up to a charismatic yelp as a brick is tossed through a Salvation Army window. Lines are compact, laced with charming observations, various southern locales, and a narrator who’s trying to “get my life together” so that he and his partner can “start a life together.”
Things get dingy and tragic on “Whippits/Trailer Lights,” dark and haunted on “Warlock's House,” insular and inward on “Lives of Saints,” then light and floaty on “William Duffy’s Farm.” Throughout it all, the music is achingly gorgeous, naturalistic, and easy to take in, despite the genuine struggles and cautionary tales depicted throughout the lyrics. It’s a 20-minute venture into a world that I never regret spending time embedded in. Most pertinent to the introduction, this is a release I would never have known about if it weren’t for my blind trust in a label that has already given me so much great music. Thank you, Dear Life. Thank you, Mr. Dollbaum.
